New start-up businesses in the UK are as abundant as ever, but issues within society, climate change, and the cost of living have proven tricky obstacles to navigate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Today marks \u2018Better Business Day\u2019 \u2013 the launch of a campaign by The Better Business Act, which is calling for an amendment to Section 172 of the Companies Act in order to benefit start-ups and small businesses.<\/p>\n
A growing coalition of over 2,000 UK businesses is now involved with the campaign, which will today see the Better Business Act speaking with MPs, policymakers, and business leaders in Westminster.<\/p>\n
Why is change being called for?<\/strong><\/p>\n Section 172 of the Companies Act sets out several duties that directors owe to a company. It requires directors to promote the success of the company so that it benefits the shareholders.<\/p>\n This legislation does not consider other responsibilities that a company has, including societal and environmental. The Better Business Act wants to see this amended, so it aligns social and environmental impact with shareholder returns.<\/p>\n Climate change is under the microscope like never before, so it is a widely popular view that the interests of people and the planet are given as much concern as those of shareholders when boardroom decisions are made.<\/p>\n How does this affect start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?<\/strong><\/p>\n With Section 172 of the Companies Act, larger companies are profit driven and often prioritise quick returns for the shareholders. For start-ups and SMEs, these methods are not as feasible as they usually lack the investment and funds to achieve these short-term goals.<\/p>\n The above is just one example of the stumbling blocks these businesses face when being forced by this legislation to act in similar ways to much larger, wealthier companies.<\/p>\n Amendments to the legislation would level the playing field for start-ups and SMEs and see a greater balance between profit and purpose across all businesses around the UK.<\/p>\n According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), SMEs account for 99.9 per cent of the business population, while in 2022, a staggering 774,420 start-ups were created. These figures show the need for equality, as these smaller companies are vital to the overall business landscape in the UK.<\/p>\n Need advice about your start-up or new business? Contact us today.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New start-up businesses in the UK are as abundant as ever, but issues within society, climate change, and the cost of living have proven tricky obstacles to navigate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5,121,25,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5114,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5113\/revisions\/5114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bainesjewitt.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}